It is known that users of road vehicles such as cars, lorries, buses or trucks, do not always enable the turn indicator when a parking spot is identified and about to be entered. The absence of an activated turn signal increases the risk that other motor vehicle drivers, pedestrians and cyclists will not perceive or misunderstand the parking intentions of such road vehicle users. Such lack of perception or misunderstanding may cause stressful and potentially dangerous situations and potentially also accidents.
The reasons why such road vehicle users fail to activate the turns signal are diverse. For instance, they may simply forget to do so due to a hectic and stressful traffic environment, e.g. city traffic. In some instances the road vehicle user may have activated the turn signal, but then unintentionally deactivated it, e.g. due to spinning of the steering wheel and the automatic release of the turn signal indicator when the steering wheel is returned to the neutral position or due to hand movements causing unintentional contact with a turn signal activation/deactivation lever, which usually is situated in the vicinity of the steering wheel.
Activation of the turn signal may in some cases also have been intentionally ignored, e.g. due to laziness on the part of the road vehicle user or due to the road vehicle user being unable to observe any other motor vehicles, pedestrians or cyclists, and therefore assuming that no other motor vehicle drivers, pedestrians and cyclists will be affected by the lack of an activated turn indicator.
An automated method for providing an indication, with the aid of a turn signal indicator, that a vehicle is leaving a parking space is previously known from US 2011128140 A1, in which a vehicle control system detects initially whether an executed driving maneuver is a maneuver related to leaving a parking space, in which case the maneuvering out of a parking space is indicated by activating the turn signal indicator, and the turn signal indicator is kept activated until the process of maneuvering out of the parking space has been concluded. An executed driving maneuver is e.g. detected as pull-out maneuver when the distance sensors detect stationary objects in front of and/or behind the vehicle or when a first driving movement in a first direction is followed by a second driving movement in a second direction opposite the first direction, and when a steering movement takes place during at least one of these maneuvers.
Furthermore, through US 2014214260 A1 is known an assistance system that particularly uses a top view system to perform an autonomous or semi-autonomous driving maneuver, especially an assistance system that serves to perform an autonomous or semi-autonomous maneuver in order to get into or out of a parking space. In the assistance system an overall image of the surroundings of the vehicle made up of several individual images is processed. Image data are generated from the surroundings of a vehicle, such as by means of several cameras directed toward different regions of the surroundings of the vehicle. The image data is suitably processed by means of image processing devices in order to perform the driving maneuver, e.g., in such a manner that objects, such as other vehicles and obstacles, are detected from the image data, the distances to the detected objects are determined, the length and the depth of a parking space is calculated, and the necessary driving maneuver including the required steering angles are derived on the basis of this information. In addition to the camera system, further sensors, such as ultrasonic, radar, lidar, and laser sensors, may be used to detect objects and obstacles and to calculate the length and the depth of the parking space. At least one direction in which the vehicle moves when performing the autonomous or semi-autonomous driving maneuver is indicated by means of at least one light signal device, whereby passengers and other road users, in particular, people in the vicinity of the vehicle, can be informed about the direction of movement intended by the assistance system and/or about the exact movement trajectory, driving path, of the vehicle. By indicating the at least one direction of movement, it is stated that accidents can be avoided or the potential of danger to people can be reduced.
Although the above mentioned previously known methods and arrangements are useful in reducing cases of lack of activated turn signals during road vehicle parking maneuvers, there is still room for further improvement in this field.